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[Video] Facebook LIVE Made Easy

Posted: February 28, 2019

At this point, you’ve no doubt heard about Facebook LIVE. Not only is it a great way for a brand to connect with its audience, it’s especially useful if you need to explain something that’s complex or has multiple steps.

Of course, the unknown can be daunting. If fear has kept you from hosting your own Facebook LIVE event, VONT’s video will help you get started.

Kim Laramy, a strategist and account director at Ethos, and Suzanne Madore, marketing strategist at VONT will show you what you need to do before, during, and after the live event.

Kim: Today, we are going to talk a little about Facebook LIVE. Don’t run scared, because it’s not hard! It’s pretty awesome and easy to do. One of the reasons we recommend Facebook LIVE is because it can be a very simple way to explain something that is complex or has multiple steps. It is very engaging and takes the mystery out of something that might otherwise be scary.

Suzanne: And if you are asking questions and presenting it in a way where your audience doesn’t quite still understand, they have the ability to jump in and ask questions then and there.

Kim: That also makes it great. So why do we recommend Facebook LIVE?

Suzanne: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that video content is hot. We don’t see that going away anytime soon. Facebook LIVE video is really low cost. You don’t need fancy equipment. If you have an iPhone and a WIFI signal you can pretty much go live anywhere. There are some considerations in that but for the most part that works. You can produce really valuable content that’s unique and informative and again, you can explain things that are complex.

Kim: In a relatable way.

Suzanne: Exactly, in a conversational way. Kind of like we are doing right now. One of the other things too is that Facebook actually rewards pages that are using the Facebook LIVE video function to get more reach. You are still going to want to promote things to make sure you are hitting your target audience, but Facebook will definitely give you a little boost for using Facebook LIVE.

Kim: So, what do you need to do before doing this?

Suzanne: Sure. So, with any event or anything you are working on, planning is most important. You are probably going to spend the most time planning. You’ll need to figure out what type of content you want to talk about. Can you break it down? Instead of one Facebook LIVE that is 30 minutes, maybe you think about 2 or 3 that are 10 or 15 minutes long. Serial episodes seem to do really well. Also, it’s better to have someone else to talk to on camera instead of just being by yourself, so a guest and a host.

Kim: Because otherwise, you would just stare at the camera, and that’s never good.

Suzanne: And it can be nerve-wracking if you don’t do this all the time. You also want to consider what day of the week, what time – is it lunch hour? is it after work? is it before work? Think about some of the times that your audience would be able to come in and tune in.

Also, look at the location where you are shooting. We have a nice backdrop here behind us, it’s visually quiet. You don’t want anything too distracting. It’s also quiet here in the background, so there aren’t other people bustling by or music playing.

Then you’re also going to want talking points. We all need them from time to time so you can address your whole topic and make sure you have everything that you need to say. Notes will also remind you to say, “Hey guys, those of you who are watching what questions do you have?” Because we get nervous and we forget, notes will help.

Kim: The other thing that’s really nice to have is someone on the other side of the camera, too.

Suzanne: Yes, having someone on the other side of the camera like we actually have today is great because they can make sure the technology is working. In its early days, Facebook LIVE used to have a lot of glitches where it would just stop shooting in the middle, which was always fantastic. Also, if there are questions or comments or stories coming in it can be really hard to keep up with them on the screen as you’re watching it, so you can have someone behind the camera to start the video, to end the video, and to also feed any of the questions that are coming in.

Kim: Do you want to go into during what happens in a little more detail?

Suzanne: Sure. So during, the biggest thing to remember when you are doing a Facebook LIVE is to breath and be you. You want to be comfortable, you don’t want to seem too rehearsed, you want talking points, but you don’t want a script, you don’t want to memorize lines, and if you forget something or say something out of order, it’s not a big deal. It’s a conversation hopefully with somebody else and even with the folks watching. Because that is the biggest part. What sets Facebook video or Facebook Live apart from every other video format is the fact that your audience is actually part of the video. So, if you are going to do a LIVE, make sure you have openings and that you invite the audience in to participate.

Kim: Exactly. Again, don’t be afraid to say, “Oh I messed that up, but let’s just keep going.” Because that’s also part of the charm of being Live.

Suzanne: Exactly. And even when the Facebook video itself is over you’re going to save that, you’re going to be publishing that to your Facebook page and people are going to watch it in replay or archive mode. After the event is a great time to continue to engage and invest in your audience. They are going to ask questions, and you’re going to want to respond and continue that relationship and keep the conversation going. Who knows? It might even inspire a whole other Facebook LIVE.

Kim: And that’s a really good point. Once you have done this, you do need to keep going back in to see if there are new comments and to answer those. It’s not a set it and forget it kind of thing.

Suzanne: Definitely. We’ll see with the Facebook LIVEs we’ve done with quite a few of our clients that as long as people are still watching and commenting, they can come in weeks or months afterwards.

Kim: And something that is really important too that you should touch on is that these days it is not just enough to put it up there, you have to put some dollars behind it to promote it. And that’s pre and post.

Suzanne: Yes, so again, Facebook does give an increased reach on the organic side, which is unpaid to Live video, but you need to invite people to come to your events and also make sure you are targeting the right audience, so you need to put some of those promotional dollars in there. The archived replay video will need to be promoted as well, so make sure you target the ideal audience who will see it and interact with it. Facebook might give you a little extra boost, but it’s generally more to the entire population versus your very specific audience.

Kim: What else do we need to share about this awesome tool of Facebook LIVE?

Suzanne: We probably could talk about this for hours and I think we have!

Kim: We could, but we won’t.

Suzanne: I know we have some blog posts coming up for VONT and for Ethos as well talking about how to plan for a Facebook LIVE even and also why you should be doing it.

Kim: Thank you.

Suzanne: Thanks.

About VONT Performance Digital Marketing

At VONT we believe that change is the only constant in the digital world – and that excites us. When tools and environments are constantly changing, new opportunities to help our clients achieve success are constantly arising. Each new advertising technology, social platform, or design approach allows us to improve on the results we achieve for our clients.

We believe in this idea of continual fine-tuning so much that we named our company VONT, which means to achieve exponential improvement in incremental steps. It is our core belief, and the reason why we are not simply a web design company or simply a digital advertising agency, but rather a long-term, single source partner providing a comprehensive array of web development and digital marketing capabilities.

In short, we’re here so that our clients achieve success in the ever-changing digital world.

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